Man with cleaver killed by Paris police on anniversary of Charlie Hebdo attacks

Police shot and killed a man wielding a cleaver Thursday after he tried to enter a northern Paris police station, French authorities said.

The man was shouting "Allahu Akbar," Interior Ministry spokesman Pierre-Henry Brandet told  BFMTV.

He wore a pouch of what appeared to be explosives, but it turned out to be fake, Paris prosecutor's spokeswoman Agnes Thibault-Lecuivre said.

The attack in Barbes, near the police station in Goutte D'Or, took place on the one-year anniversary of the Charlie Hebdo killings, the first of deadly jihadist attacks that have roiled the French capital over the past 12 months.

In those attacks, two gunmen killed 12 people in an assault on the offices of the French satirical magazine, which had angered Islamists for its irreverent approach to Islam and publication of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed.

There was a heavy police presence around the scene in the aftermath of Thursday's shooting, with officers advising residents to remain indoors and attempting to clear the area. Residents gathered at a cordon along the street seeking to enter their homes.

At the Polyvalent de la Goutte d'Or, a school on the same street as the police station, students were confined in the building, school director Eric Denis said. 

Speculation over motive

In the aftermath, Parisians, already wary on a highly sensitive anniversary, speculated about whether the attacker was a lone wolf, a disturbed individual or possibly the first wave of the kind of coordinated attacks that struck in November.

Terrorism expert Jean-Charles Brisard, president of the Center for Analysis of Terrorism, noted the attack occurred in Paris' 18th arrondissement, which could have a symbolic connection to the ISIS-claimed November attacks that killed 130 people.

The terror group's claim of responsibility for the November killings referred to an operation in the 18th arrondissement, but none occurred there. The group's statement, along with a reference to eight attackers when there had only been seven, led to speculation an eighth jihadist had planned an attack in the district but backed out.

Regis Le Sommier, co-editor of Paris Match magazine, said he was inclined to think the latest attack was self-directed, rather than coordinated by the central command of ISIS or another terror group, since it took place on the anniversary of the Charlie Hebdo assault.

Since 9/11, he said, jihadists had not shown any particular interest in striking on the anniversaries of terror attacks despite the sensitivities around the dates. "That probably makes me think that he decided to do it on his own,"